Book Review: Textile League Baseball: South Carolina's Mill Teams, 1880-1955

I accidently stumbled upon Thomas Perry's book, "Textile League Baseball," while conducting some analysis on a little bit of hometown trivia. Oddly, within the 1950's and 60's you'll hear the Chicago White Sox broadcasts in my hometown of Greenville, SC on radio station, WMRB-1490 AM. As I grew older I wondered why where Chicago games broadcast into the Deep South. My interest was rekindled in 2006 when an investor purchased and relocated the last house that Shoeless Joe Jackson lived in. Unbeknownst to me, Jackson's house was located simply 2 blocks from where I attended elementary school. His house was eventually moved to downtown and have become the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum. I pondered, was the Shoeless Joe Jackson's legacy connected to the broadcasts? Were the broadcasts the results of a devotee base that had developed around Shoeless Joe? A posting on Facebook speculated that the Brandon Mill baseball team (where Shoeless Joe Jackson played) may have adopted the Chicago White Sox as their team. I purchased Thomas Perry's book within the hope he might shed some light-weight on my quest.

Perry's book intrigued me because I used to be born in Greenville. At just once, upstate South Carolina was thought-about the textile center of the world. I only lived two miles from Brandon Mill where my wife and her parents worked prior to its closure. Perry explained, not only was baseball a half of the textile community, but why textile mills sprang up where they did. He stated you often found a textile mill near a water source as running water was necessary to generate electricity. The mill was the heart of the community and its employees were not viewed just as employees, but as family. Textile mills were often located in remote areas lacking convenient access to entertainment and other amenities.

Thomas Perry states that baseball became a basic part of textile village life and was an outlet to the grueling work scheduled. The games fostered competition and community pride for players and spectators. Teams sprang up in each corner of the region and by 1908 the primary league was born. As time wore on, groups and leagues would type and fold, but the interest never waned. Spectators would travel for miles by foot, horse drawn buggy, or train just to observe Textile Baseball. The Textile League baseball glory years were the 1930's. Many believed their level of play was equal to Major League baseball and teams weren't keep to send a prospective player packing if he wasn't up to their standards. Mill homeowners recruited smart players and typically would bend employment rules to the good thing about the team. Indeed, homeowners were investing capital and resources to create the teams competitive and attendance would frequently exceed a thousand per game.
Perry conjointly identified the nice players of the league with chapters devoted to Champ Osteen and Shoeless Joe Jackson. Additionally, he offers an appendix of Textile League players who created it to the majors. Unfortunately, I might find not collaborating proof of textile mills adopting Major League teams. This was a direct source of disappointment. The terribly reality that Perry did not mention this is most likely as a result of the teams did not adopt. But, much to my delight, I did realize the names of two baseball players: my former pastor, Dan Greer of Washington Avenue Baptist Church, and my father-in-law, John Blackston. Both were listed within the second appendix, "Records and Rosters."

Perry cites many reasons for the demise of the Textile Leagues in the chapter titled the Decline and Fall: mill owners began to sell houses within the mill villages destroying community pride; post WW II prosperity meant additional folks bought automobiles making a trip to the lake, mountains, etc. additional preferable than a walk to the ball field; tv; mill management allocated less money as groups lost cash due to less attendance; disparity among the groups, as larger mills may field higher ball players; and the final death nail occurred in 1959 when South Carolina applied an Admission Tax to the gate receipts.

Reading the chapter Decline and Fall left me feeling profoundly sad. I am not sure why except that it stroke a chord in my memory of each time I visit Greenville. As I travel through town, I notice all the abandoned mills with their rusting water towers appearing as headstones marking a bygone era. I certainly don't relish the days when the Prepared River would amendment colors when mills would dump their waste. However I do reminisce regarding the hustle and bustle of the mill activity and also the community spirit that once thrived.

While the book did not help me collaborate a Chicago White Sox radio broadcast and Shoeless Joe Jackson connection, it absolutely was a completely enjoyable read. (I finally confirmed that Shoeless Joe had nothing to try and do with the Sox broadcasts. It turned out to be simply an odd coincidence.) The book did have one distraction however. I was annoyed at the statistical and performance details the author would include in his attempt to highlight some of the additional memorable or important games. I suppose box score numbers are helpful in some circumstances, however I found them distracting. Descriptions are entertaining in the sports pages however make for boring reading during a history book. Nevertheless, in one instance those details come in handy when an associate told me of a relative who played for Easley. A quick check of the book found the player, Wayne Johnson of the Brooklyn Dodgers, on page 72 facing Lou Brissie from Monaghan who was owned by the Philadelphia Athletics. Thus I suppose I ought to repent of my egotistical read and apprize that added detail.

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